


Conversations

by fictorium



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: 5 Times, Boss/Employee Relationship, F/F, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 17:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7582651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five conversations Cat has with Carter (about Kara). For the prompt "come on, it wasn't that bad".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conversations

**-1-**

“Mom?” Carter appears in the doorway of her home office, fighting a yawn in his Superman pajamas. That makes Cat smile a little at the end of a long and trying day.

“Yes?”

“Is Kara really still your assistant?” Thanks to some nanny-based incompetence, Carter had spent two hours after school at CatCo. Normally Cat would grab at any chance for extra time with her son, but it meant having to contain the worst of her temper during a spell when entire departments needed her wrath rained down on them. She’d made up for it when he left at five. 

“You mean Keira? For the moment, yes.” The girl _had_ technically saved the day. If she hadn’t unearthed that convenient copy of the missing evidence that the Tribune’s entire exposé hinged on, they could have headed into a very embarrassing print run. 

“But you hired her just after my birthday.” Carter approaches her chair, and she wishes she could bring less work home, that she could be available for evenings filled with hugs and games and chatter about school as often as Carter would like it. But Cat is a pragmatist, and an expert in her own mind. She knows without the work - the overwork - and the constant stimulation, she’d be lost. She’d fail Carter as a mother differently, but just as badly as she did Adam. Only this time Carter would be right there to watch her do it. 

“So?”

“Mom, that’s like six whole months,” Carter lays a gentle hand on her forearm, the way he does when he wants comfort but can’t quite stomach a full hug. Cat pats his hand lightly, and he smiles at recognition of his unspoken request. They’ve become adept at last, and she’s terrified they’ll lose this secret communication as he gets older and the usual teen reticence kicks in. 

“Do you think I should fire her then?” Cat asks, because something about not realizing _six months_ has passed is unsettling her in a profound way.

“Nah,” Carter decides. “She probably won’t last much longer anyway.”

Cat kisses his forehead and watches him shuffle off back towards his room. She reopens her email and types furiously until Kara’s to-do list for the morning is groaning with semi-impossible tasks. Six before breakfast, so take that Kara in Wonderland. 

She gets back to the restructuring documents after a hearty mouthful of Scotch, and Cat tells herself she doesn’t feel guilty at all.

**-2-**

“I’m sorry you had to wait so long, darling,” Cat sighs as she slides into the car. Carter barely looks up from his comic book. “Your father and I have agreed to new terms though.”

He remains silent as the car plows through afternoon traffic, rush hour not yet gridlocking National City.

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad, was it?” Cat persists. “I know you don’t like the offices, but you had all your things with you.” 

He’s never been happy at CatCo, and his violent dislike of it at first had almost caused her to rethink the building altogether. Carter finds too much brightness painful, and her white, open-plan, screen-filled floor is particularly unwelcoming for him. Cat needs that environment to work, but she compromises at home. Her penthouse has been modified in countless ways - lowered ceilings, tinted glass, the very softest of lighting - and Carter’s room and playroom are exactly how he wanted them. The dark tones of the spaces are always lightened by how happy Carter is in them.

“I liked hanging with Kara,” he says eventually, clutching the pages of the comic a little too tight. “Although I think she thinks I’m, like, five.”

“Keira isn’t terribly bright,” Cat answers, a pang of jealousy clutching at her chest. Carter never likes anyone but her or Ella. It’s a chore getting him to spend time with his father, even. How has Kara wormed her way into being acceptable company? “She didn’t make you help with paperwork, did she?”

“Nah, she showed me your secret file room though, because it’s nice and dark in there.” Carter slowly puts his comic back in his backpack. “I got all my homework done, too. She knows math that even you’ve never shown me.”

“Did she now?” Cat can’t help snapping. Kara had better not so much as drop a pencil for the rest of the week. 

“That’s nine months, mom. If she was a baby she’d be getting born by now, right?”

“You know, Carter, I don’t think we need to keep count.”

**-3-**

“Mom, it wasn’t Kara’s fault.”

“So you’ve said, all the way home,” Cat doesn’t like to be short with him, but traveling back and forth to Metropolis coupled with the panic of Carter being on that damn train has left her more frazzled than she cares to admit. “I left early to spend time with you, not to hear about my careless assistant.”

“You know, when I saw Supergirl last night, it kind of hit me...” Carter disappears off down the hall, and Cat is exasperated that he just expects her to follow. She kicks off her heels and hangs her coat, slipping her phone out of her purse before heading to his room.

“What hit you?” She prompts from the doorway, even though Carter is already halfway through his post-school routine of unpacking his books and changing into play clothes. “About Supergirl?”

“She looks a lot like Kara,” Carter replies, pulling a t-shirt over his head. 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cat scolds gently. “Supergirl is an otherworldly beauty with rippling muscles and flowing hair.” Carter shoots her a look. Cat sticks her tongue out at him. “Kara dresses like an extra from Hairspray and is genetically incapable of letting her hair down. She was born with it in a ponytail.”

“It’s in the legs, Mom,” Carter tells her, pretty sure of himself. He can't help but notice that mom forgot to get her name wrong this time. “Always check out the legs.”

**-4-**

“Mom?”

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Cat greets her son at the kitchen island, where he’s already tucking into his cereal. 

“Do you remember that time I told you I liked Holly?” Carter asks her, and Cat freezes with her hand on the refrigerator door. Another crush? So soon? She isn’t ready for her little boy to be growing up this fast.

“Yes, and we discussed the lighthouse technique,” Cat replies, because she refuses to be anything but honest with her son. “I’m sorry that didn’t quite work out as planned.”

“It’s okay, she and Sara make a really cute couple,” Carter sighs. “But do you remember how when that plan failed I was sad?”

“Of course I do,” Cat puts the splash of milk in her coffee before abandoning it to offer Carter a hug. He accepts, but with a little huff of impatience. Clearly he has something on his mind.

“Well, you’ve been kind of sad, Mom.”

“Have I?” Cat collects her coffee, staring her son down over the marble counter. She can’t flinch, or he’ll know.

“And I couldn’t work out why.” 

“Don’t chew with your mouth open, young man.”

“But then I emailed Kara about my field trip and she told me she’d let your new assistant know. She still has a CatCo email address, so she isn’t fired...”

“I promoted her,” Cat explains, relieved to be off the hook if they’re discussing Kara’s career path. “She’s doing quite well in her new role.”

“Did she start it three weeks ago?” Carter asks.

“Around then,” Cat admits. _Three weeks, one day and 23 excruciating hours ago_ , to be precise. “Why?”

“Because that’s how long you’ve been sad for,” Carter points out, slurping milk from his bowl with a cheeky grin that says he knows he’s flustered his mother enough to get away with it. “I think you want her to ... the thing with the port?” Carter loses some of his bravado then.

“Get ready for school,” Cat tells him, fretting into her coffee. If she’s this transparent to her son, she dreads to think who else is aware. At least Kara won’t be, her obliviousness both charming and maddening.

“Get ready to ask Kara out,” Carter calls back from the hallway. He is so completely grounded.

**-5-**

“My eyes!” Carter yelps when Cat comes to find him in his room, her robe hastily pulled on. “My eeeeeyes.”

“Are you actually traumatized?” Cat demands, too embarrassed to sugarcoat the question. “Because this is partly your fault.”

Carter drops his hands from his face, grinning at her.

“Way to go, mom.” For a moment she thinks he’s actually going to high-five her. “Listen, I can call the car and go back to the library.”

“This is your home, Carter-”

“And I want you to be happy in it,” he answers, looking down at the floor and blushing. “It’s really not a problem. I have studying to do.”

“Hey Carter,” Kara says from the doorway. She’s a little more put together than Cat, damn that super speed. “Cat, do you think we could have a minute to talk, just me and Carter?”

**1 Conversation Carter has with Kara (about Cat)**

“Hey,” Kara says when Cat stalks off down the hall. “So obviously that was not how we wanted to tell you.”

“I knew,” Carter reassures her. “She’s been really happy. Almost all the time.”

“Almost?” Kara looks alarmed, but then she adjusts for Cat and seems satisfied. “Listen, I wanted to ask you about this before anything got serious, but things happened. But I don’t want to come between you and your mom, ever.”

“Serious?”

“I’m kinda crazy about her, buddy,” Kara admits. “Is it a bad idea to tell her that?”

“I think Mom really likes hearing how everyone is totally in love with her,” Carter suggests. “So you’re probably fine?”

“She’s going to have a glass against the wall in a minute,” Kara sighs. “Want to talk all this out over pizza with us?”

“Mom’s having pizza?” Carter is stunned by that one. “Sure? I mean, I guess.”

“See you in the dining room then,” Kara says with a wink. “I have to go pick up the pizzas.”

“You can fly out of this window,” Carter suggests, and with that the last secret dissolves between them. “If you want.”

“Smart kid,” Kara notes. “I’d better check in with your mom first, though.”

“Yeah,” Carter agrees. “No anchovies on mine, okay?”


End file.
